How can they let the man who did this to me get away with it so lightly?

A WOMAN whose boyfriend beat her up in a drunken rage has expressed her outrage after magistrates gave him a community order.

Tony Wagner, 45, was convicted of assault in May after the attack on his then-partner Sharon Quick in the early hours of September 3, 2006, after a day of heavy drinking at the Westwood Club in Tilehurst, Reading magistrates heard at his sentencing last Friday.

Just after midnight on the night of the attack he verbally abused her, pushed her out of bed, put his hands around her neck as if to strangle her and punched her in the face.

Ms Quick suffered bruising on her body and after the hearing told the Post the incident left her humiliated and scared to go out.

She said Wagner’s punishment did nothing to compensate for what he did to her.

“I am just so angry,” she said.

“What he did to me was humiliating and I am no way near the person I used to be. I used to be loud and outgoing and always up for a laugh but my self-confidence has been ruined.”

Ms Quick also claimed Mr Wagner called her fat and hit her after a night out a few weeks before but she didn’t report the incident.

She said: “I wanted him to feel humiliated in court like I was when he assaulted me but he has got away with it. The community order and the money he has to pay won’t even affect him. I think it’s disgusting.”

During the hearing, Martin Chandler, defending, said: “Mr Wagner has been convicted of assault but I would like to remind the court that it was the supposed victim who used physical violence first, slapping him across the face when he called her names and she then went on to grab his b***s causing him pain and therefore my client is also, I would suggest, a victim of assault.

“He has also been subject to a number of embarrassing incidents including having ‘wife beater’ graffitied on his home in Cotswold Way and his car.

“He had been going through a very difficult time after a recent divorce and after a heavy drinking session he has always upheld that he cannot fully remember what happened on that night.”

At his sentencing, chairman of the magistrates, Lee Evans, ordered Wagner pay £100 in compensation to Ms Quick and £200 costs, as well as having to do 100 hours of unpaid work.

Wagner declined to comment after the sentence but Ms Quick said she was going to appeal for more compensation for the attack.